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Book Reviews by Stacey J. Miller

As I find gems, I'll post them here. Feel free to pitch a book to me for a potential review.
Oh, yes. I'll let you know about my clients' books, too. But I'll disclose that my clients are my clients. ... they wouldn't want it any other way.

The initiative started during the government shutdown when a
few concerned Randolph residents reached out to Town Councillor Natacha
Clerger to help one family. "I would cook food and bring it over to
the kids while the parents were at work," Clerger recalls. "Then it
was three families, and then ten. Since I could not afford to feed so many, I approached
a few contacts that I have in Boston, and that was the beginning. I had so much
produce to donate the first day that I decided to open it to the entire town
and anyone who feels the need." …

"Everyone's heard of the college admissions scandal by
now. It's time to learn about the college emissions scandal. It also
stinks." So says Stacey J. Miller, author of the new book, Feline Operation Barfitty Blues: The College
Emissions Scandal (BPT Press, March 2010). Stacey, along with practically everyone else in the U.S., was startled to hear that some of the rich
and famous celebrities of Hollywood
had cheated to get their children admitted to elite colleges. "I
understand there are serious repercussions of an unfair college admittance
system, and I hope the lawsuits to come will help create accountability and
transparency." In the meantime, Stacey decided to ha…

Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin may be trying to hide on social media, but famous felines are coming forward in a new tell-all book to confess about their roles in the college emissions scandal: Feline Operation Barfitty Blues: The College Emissions Scandal.

In Piecesby Sally FieldRaise your hand if you thought Sally Field might be the one person on the planet who had been blessed with a perfect set of life circumstances. Me, either.

Her lifelong challenges were as real and profoundly disturbing as those of many other people. The good news is that Sally's wisdom and self-awareness turned her experiences into a candid, compelling memoir that all of her fans -- as well as everyone who appreciates autobiographies, as I do -- should read. Candid and compelling, "In Pieces" is a story that deserved to be told, and Sally should be gratified that she had the ability to tell it so well. Solid, poignant writing by a gifted and highly skilled actor. She is as good at parsing words as she is at working a stage (and screen).

How can catatonia be a major psychiatric illness when no-one
knows what it is? Could it be that psychiatry has lost touch with the real
mental disorders? The question is important because catatonia is probably more
treatable than anything else in psychiatry. And it affects one patient in every
ten with a serious illness — but first it has to be recognized.
It is not a form of “schizophrenia,” and does not respond
well to the anti-schizophrenic drugs that many doctors might be inclined to use.
In his novel, The Winter Soldier, Daniel Mason writes of a World War I
soldier's body that is curled up among a pile of roots: "Alive...But it
doesn’t move. It doesn’t speak." The fictional soldier's body only
twitches when someone touches his shoulder. "The man’s eyes were wide, his
nose flared, as he tried to take in breath. But no words, nothing save the
flinch, the stare," the novel continues.
That is a fair description of catatonia, a bodily condition.
Staring,…

The "Mama Mia, Part 2" movie was supposed to be the cultural highlight of my summer. That let me down, bigly.

I am not easy to please.

There are 844 books downloaded onto my Kindle and another 2,197 archived items. (I call my Kindle "Cokie" for a reason.) That's 3,041 ebooks, and I don't even want to tell you how many actual printed books I have stacked in every nook and cranny (in fact, I may be wearing several of them).

The point here is that I have way too much reading material to whine that I have "nothing to read." But, for much of the summer, I flitted about from book to book, taking a few sips of one and lingering for a couple of days at another, but savoring few of them for very long.

Writing Samples by Stacey J. Miller You can see my latest two books on Amazon. 1. Getting Past Childhood Bullying: How Adults Can Recover From Trauma That Began at School (BPT Press, 2018) 2. Feline Operation Barfitty Blues: The College Emissions Scandal (BPT Press, 2019)
Writing Sample 1The Truth
About Root CanalsMeta: You may associate the phrase "root canal" with
intolerable suffering. Ask yourself, though, which is likely to hurt you more:
intractable tooth pain, or having a root canal. What Is a
Root Canal?A
root canal, which means removing an infected nerve, is a generally accepted way
to relieve serious tooth pain. Since the tooth's nerve serves no vital
function, you can eliminate it with impunity in the event of severe tooth
decay, injury, or infection. Most
of the time, root canals are relatively safe and effective. There are few risks
associated with having the procedure, while there are many potential drawbacks
to avoiding it. So
how
do you know whether you shoul…

I'm a book publicist. That means that, in many ways, my job is a dream come true. I get paid to read books and, frequently, the books that I promote are books that I'd want to read even if I weren't getting paid to read them.
That said, I read more than my share of books that are not written by clients. Some of these books are too good to not share.
As I find gems, I'll post them here.
Oh, yes. And as I come across great books by clients, I'll let you know about those, too. I'll always tell you when I book I'm blogging about has been written by a client, though. That's only fair, I think.
If you'd like your book to be reviewed, feel free to email me at stacey at bookpr dot com.